When we were at the hospital, the nurses had us record Aaron's dirty diapers (did he have a bowel movement, or just pee) and his feedings (time and duration) on a white board in the room. So when we got home, I felt like I should continue this until we had breastfeeding well established. After writing it down on scratch paper for a day or two, I created spreadsheets which I print out and use to record the information.
We only recorded his diapers for a couple of days because it quickly became apparent that he was getting plenty to eat. Nearly every diaper was filled with both #1 and #2. We were changing at least 12 diapers a day.
I have continued to record his feedings, though, since it helps me determine when he will want to eat again and it also lets me see his pattern of eating over the last few days. For example, I can see that yesterday, he only ate 7 times, which is down from a peak of 12 in the first two weeks. However, today, he has already eaten 6 times, so he will probably end up with 8 or 9 feedings total today. Overall, though, he is eating less often, which is a relief to me.
One of my pregnant friends asked me to share the spreadsheets I created, so I have published them using Google Documents. (Blogger doesn't let me upload spreadsheets for download and using Google Documents seemed easier than trying to upload them to a web server somewhere.) It is the first time I have used this service, so this is kind of an experiment. I am hoping the spreadsheets cannot be edited online, but you should be able to right click on the spreadsheet and export to Excel. If you try it out, leave me a comment as to how it worked for you. I am including links to the published documents below.
Breastfeeding Log
Dirty Diapers
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